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Urban Radar

Urban Radar

By: Tom Goodfellow and Beth Perry
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About this listen

Urban Radar is a podcast series brought to you by Professors Tom Goodfellow and Beth Perry, which reflects on current events and emerging trends through the lens of cities and urban life. Drawing on the unique range of urban expertise in the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester, we place urban dynamics at the centre of contemporary global affairs.


Feedback:


Email: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

Instagram: @urbanradarpodcast


Credits:


Podcast production, presentation & editing: Tom Goodfellow & Beth Perry


Post-production editing & marketing: Polly Clifton


Production support: Jack Clayton


Distribution, promotion & marketing: Vicky Simpson


Music: Horizon (music by Tom Goodfellow, produced by Alan Thomson); Falling Down (music by Tom Goodfellow, performed by the Dice, produced by Alan Thomson); Ghosts (music by the Dice; produced by Alan Thompson); Kilimanjaro (music by Tom Goodfellow, produced by Alan Thompson).


Supported by the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester.

© 2026 Urban Radar
Politics & Government Science Social Sciences
Episodes
  • CHAOS AND DESIRE IN THE CITY: A conversation with Tanya Zack and Tanzil Shafique
    Apr 13 2026

    Come with us to Johannesburg and Dhaka in this month's feature. Visit the markets and stalls of Jeppe, in inner city Johannesburg, a dynamic ecosystem of informal traders, sometimes called Africa’s shopping Mecca. Head with us to Korail, an informal settlement of 300,000 dwellers, sometimes called Bangladesh’s largest slum.

    In this double book talk, we are joined by two critically-acclaimed authors. With Tanya Zack we discuss her book The Chaos Precinct: Johannesburg as a Port City, a narrative of how migrant Ethiopians have shaped this trading post in the inner city. With Tanzil Shafique we explore his book City of Desire: An Urban Biography of the Largest Slum in Bangladesh which challenges what and how we know the different desires of settlement-dwellers.

    Together we consider:

    • how global-local dynamics shape and are shaped by different urban places around the world
    • how formal and informal spaces in cities are managed, policed and regulated
    • the epistemic politics and positions of doing urban research

    Guests

    Tanya Zack is a South African urban planner and writer whose work has focused on urban regeneration, contemporary migration, informal work, urban policy and affordable housing. Her writing in Wake Up This Is Joburg (Duke University Press, 2022) has been lauded for being amongst the freshest and most original material on an African city. It was included in the longlist of the 2024 Sunday Times/Exclusive Books Literary Awards. The products of her professional practice in Johannesburg's inner city, including an inner-city transformation policy, and a study of cross border shopping, are recognised as ground-
    breaking interventions.

    Tanzil is Senior Lecturer of Urban Design at the Sheffield School of Architecture and Associate of the Urban Institute. Tanzil’s research looks at southern urbanism, pluriversal architectural practice and informal planning, mainly focusing on the ongoing adaptation and transformation due to climate change led by the local citizens. He is currently leading a dweller-led urban wetland restoration stewardship project in Dhaka and co-convenes the Platform for Just Housing (Najjyo Abashon Moncho or NAM), which works towards housing and climate justice with local activists and citizens.

    Hosts:

    Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)

    Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

    Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

    You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

    Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • 23. PROPERTY AND URBICIDE: Housing in Lebanon, +Nairobi floods, +Banksy, +scam centres, +Habermas and more
    Mar 23 2026

    This month, Tom and Beth are joined by Hannah Sender, University of Sheffield, and Mariam Bazzi, Beirut Urban Lab to discuss how propertied families in small towns in Lebanon have responded to violence and displacement over the past years (Go to 35:04 for guests).

    When left with no savings, and little help to repair and reconstruct after military interventions, property becomes a moral relationship, as much as a personal asset: what ought housing to be used for, when urbicide becomes a core goal of warfare?

    Also on our radar:

    • Infrastructural causes of flooding in Nairobi
    • What Cubans in Miami reveal about how diaspora shape urban politics
    • Banksy's loss of anonymity in an era of surveillance capitalism
    • Data centre politics in the French local elections
    • Scam centres in Cambodia
    • Habermas, an unrecognised urbanist?

    Guests:

    Hannah Sender is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Urban Institute, University of Sheffield. Her current research examines land and housing relations in Lebanon.

    Mariam Bazzi is a researcher at the Beirut Urban Lab, working on cultural heritage destruction and reconstruction in Palestine and Lebanon. Previous work included tracking the urbicide in Gaza.

    And More:

    Compound capitalism - Ivan Franceschini, Ling Li, Mark Bo

    Capitalism and conflict at the margins - Xu Peng, Jonathan Goodhand, Patrick Meehan, Naomi Yonder

    Habermas and the City - Tommaso Vitale

    The Sheffield Declaration (see also episode 4)

    Planning and crisis - Mona Fawaz (see also episode 10)

    Hosts:

    Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)

    Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

    Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

    You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

    Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 6 mins
  • 22. CRISIS, PUBLIC HEALTH & THE CITY: A conversation with Cristina Temenos
    Mar 9 2026

    In this episode Beth and Tom are joined by Cristina Temenos from the University of Manchester to discuss a wide range of issues from trust in medicine, responses to COVID-19 and experimentation and evidence in localised healthcare settings. Together, they ask:

    • Faced with crisis after crisis, how do municipalities deliver public health care in Athens, Santiago and Greater Manchester?
    • What forms of experimentation, innovation and alternative provision emerge during crisis, and what does this mean for the role of state and non-state services in addressing the needs of vulnerable populations?
    • What does crisis policy-making look like and how is it changing the way we are thinking about evidence and expertise?

    Guests:

    Cristina Temenos is a Reader in Human Geography, an urban, political geographer, her current project explores how cities are managing intersecting health, economic and social crises to negotiate more just urban futures. Her research is focused on health inequalities and the politics of access to care in cities globally. Working in the field of policy mobilities, she has developed this work in relation to drug use and treatment, public health, housing, economic austerity, environmental sustainability, transport, and climate change. She has recently published in journals such as Progress in Human Geography, IJURR and Dialogues in Urban Research.

    Read More:
    Crisis policy-making and revanchist public health politics
    The modalities and politics of crisis urbanism
    Urban crisis as infrastructure, not event: A view from Beirut
    Crisis and the urban imagination
    Austerity co-production

    Hosts:

    Tom Goodfellow is Professor of Urban Development in the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. His research focuses on the political economy of urban development and change in Africa, particularly the politics of urban land and transportation, conflicts around infrastructure and housing, and urban institutional change. (linkedin.com/in/tom-goodfellow-0b418441)

    Beth Perry is Professor of Urban Epistemics and Director of the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield. Her research focuses on the relationships between urban expertise, governance and justice, underpinned by a commitment to co-producing collective intelligence across multiple scales to address complex urban challenges. She has worked in cities in Africa, Europe and the UK. (linkedin.com/in/itsbethperry)

    Email feedback to: urbanradarpod@gmail.com

    You can also follow us on instagram: @urbanradarpodcast

    Thanks to the Universities of Sheffield and Manchester for providing time, resources and equipment to support this podcast.

    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
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